Spectrum Health gets OK to perform lung transplants

Dr. Reda Girgis, the medical director for the lung transplant program, returned to his home state of Michigan from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.Emily Zoladz | MLive.com

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Spectrum Health has received approval to perform lung transplants and expects to perform the first transplant some time before February.

The United Network for Organ Sharing, the organization that manages the U.S. lung transplant system, has certified Spectrum’s transplant program, hospital officials announced Monday, Dec. 3.

“This is a significant milestone for our patients and for us,” said Reda Girgis, MD, medical director of Spectrum’s lung transplant program.

“We can now place West Michigan patients on our waiting list and they’ll be able to receive this gift of life closer to home.”

Girgis said he hopes the first transplant can take place between now and February.

Girgis, a member of Spectrum Health Medical Group, was recruited earlier this year from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to lead the lung transplant program.

Dr. Asghar Khaghani, the British surgeon who heads up the heart transplant program, will be the lead surgeon for lung transplants.

Dr. Michael Harrison, the chief of pulmonology for Spectrum Health Medical Group, has said Spectrum will likely perform 10 to 20 lung transplants a year.

Spectrum is the third health system in the state to receive approval transplant lungs. Only Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor perform the procedure. Those two programs performed a total of 30 lung transplants in 2011.

In a July interview, Girgis said that, based on the state’s population, he would expect about 60 Michigan patients to need the transplants.

Nationwide, 1,800 lung transplants were performed last year. The patients in need of new lungs include those with cystic fibrosis, diseases that cause scarring of the lungs, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the doctors said.

For those patients, a transplant can mean not just survival, but a vastly improved quality of life, Girgis said in the July interview.

“The patients who really have no other medical options for their lung disease are really tied to their oxygen tank and to their home,” he said. “They really can’t get out of the house. Any minimal activity makes them short-winded.

“If they have a lung transplant and everything goes well, they can really have normal lung function and normal exercise capacity. It’s very gratifying to see that type of change. And the patients are very grateful.”